Case Study: Amalgamated Suckup dot com
This is a companion piece to 10 Principles of Social Media series. This post provides a framework around understanding Free Information in the context of a private, pre-IPO/aquisition organization, Amalgamated Suckup dot com.
Company: Amalgamated Suckup dot com
Industry: Startup
Location: Anytown, US
Corporate Environment:
Amalgamated Suckup Dot Com is an organization that just closed their second round of funding and is tasked by investors to create a new widget for a market of users. The primary revenue model is contextual advertising/user data.
Situation:
The organization chart for Amalgamated Suckup Dot Com follows:
- McOrg Chart courtesy of ourfounder.typepad.com
Each level of the org chart represents a gate through which information can pass, depending on the decisions made by information holders. In other words, Do I cc the whole team, or just the leads? Do I use bcc so others on the thread don’t know I’m sharing it with others?
At the bottom of each silo, you see those tasked to execute - these are the people who push the hypothetical button to create a widget.
Why were the widgets out so very different from the widget vision, widgets users wanted and used, that the VCs funded?
Analysis:
The scared and the clueless are scared and clueless due to the lack of information and/or barriers to access. They’re clueless because they don’t have the right information to make high judgement decisions. They’re scared because they’re making decisions and executing tasks on a daily basis and integrating new information is a decision about their pay grade.
They understand that they’re supposed to be making VC-funded widgets. The charts, graphs and managers all say that the market will love widgets and their options will be worth something.
What if customer service learns that the extra ‘e’ is problematic and that users really want widgts? Do they, can they tell marketing and product development? What if marketing realizes that widgts can be used to address users’ needs in a very different way than originally thought? What if producing widgts cost 1/7 of the cost of production for widgets?
What would happen if it were easier for customer service to talk to marketing and product development?
Social media provides another pathway for information sharing within the organization. Information sharing will enpower people to make better decisions on what work to do, how to do their work and move product. Employees feel good about their work, users love the product, VCs make their money and everyone is happy.
Read more about Amalgamated Suckup on Jim Benson’s blog, Evolving Web.